at this point 50 some days out ...
how can things be as tight as
everyone is showing ....
people really should know what Mittens
is gonna do to em ... and how he feels
about a vast majority of them ....

U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello said there is no fundamental federal constitutional right to an anonymous ballot, and that the plaintiffs could not show any "actual or imminent" harm.
Marilyn Marks, president of Citizen Center, the organization that brought the case, called the outcome "shocking." She plans
to consult with the organization's attorneys about whether to pursue the case in state court or appeal in federal court.

snip

"To hear the court say that it's OK for the clerk and all the election works to have access to how we vote is just shocking," Marks said.
Boulder County Clerk Hillary Hall said she was not expecting the entire case to be dismissed, but was "very pleased" with the outcome.
"This will allow us to focus as we always have on the integrity of the upcoming election," Hall said.

snip

Until recently, every Boulder County ballot had a unique number that distinguished it from every other ballot. That number made it easy for election workers to retrieve a specific ballot if it wouldn't scan properly or had over- or undervotes that needed to be assessed manually.
However, election integrity activists contended that through comparisons with voter rolls, those unique numbers could reveal how individual people voted.

snip

In an attempt to resolve the issue, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler issued an emergency ruling earlier this year that prohibited any identifying markings on ballots. Because Hall wanted to keep numbers on the ballots to facilitate finding problem ballots during counting, she proposed to repeat each ballot number across precincts and ballot styles so that the number would no longer be unique.
The Secretary of State's Office accepted this solution, at least for the November election, but activists still had concerns that the ballots could be identified. A similar system was used in the June primaries, and activists say those ballots can be traced to individual voters. They continued to ask for a restraining order and injunction against the relevant counties to stop them printing ballots with identifying marks.

Real estate developer who spent $20,000 transforming debris-filled lot into garden is told by city he was trespassing... and now they want him to change it BACK
Real estate developer Ori Feibush tried for years to buy vacant lot in Point Breeze neighbourhood of Philadelphia from the city
Never made headway and eventually tried to get city to clean lot ahead of his coffee shop's opening
When that didn't happen, he cleaned lot at own expense, around $20,000
City told him he was trespassing and causing taxpayers undue burden
Now told to change lot back to its original state

snip

But the city of Philadelphia said that by cleaning the dilapidated lot, Mr Feibush was trespassing. To add insult to injury, the city said that Mr Feibush had to return the 1,600-square feet back to its original state.

snip

But according to Paul Chrystie, who works as the director of communications for Philadelphia’s Office of Housing and Community Development, the barriers were there for the safety of residents, and also to prevent people from dumping their trash.
He told ABC News that the property was not ignored, though it could have used a little work. He said in a statement: ‘There are hundreds of agreements in Philadelphia allowing private citizens to use public lots.

snip

‘This is not something I had any interest in doing. I expected a thank you, I didn’t expect the reaction to be what it was, go find 40 tonnes of trash and put it back.’
He estimated that it would cost between $70,000 and $80,000 to purchase the lot from the city, and at this point, he said, ‘I would pay it just to keep it a garden.
'I would gladly pay if there was fair market value. The real shame is that I never expressed interest, but I and probably others were turned down.
‘It’s as if they want their city to remain blighted.’

A college professor has been placed on leave after she allegedly forced her class to sign a pledge to vote for President Obama in the upcoming elections.
Early last week Professor Sharon Sweet at Brevard Community College (BCC) allegedly told students to sign a pledge that reads: “I pledge to vote for President Obama and Democrats up and down the ticket.”

snip

“Based on the allegations, Associate Professor Sweet has requested, and been granted, a leave of absence without pay effective immediately,” reads a statement put out by John Glisch, Associate Vice President for Communications at BCC.

snip

“The college will continue its investigation into the matter, which will include interviews with all students in her class,” continues the statement.
Sweet’s actions may have also violated Florida’s election laws.

snip

Section 104.31, of Title IX in chapter 104, states that “no officer or employee of the state... shall... use his or her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with an election or nomination of officer or influencing another person’s vote or affecting the result thereof.”

CASTLE ROCK - Now that the school board voted to officially sever ties with the teachers union, what happens now? What does this move mean for schools and for the union?
"We felt it was important for local control purposes to make a clear statement," said John Carson, president of the Douglas County School Board.

snip

The school board passed resolutions making it board policy to sever ties with the Douglas County Federation of Teachers and Classified Employees. The district will no longer engage in collective bargaining with the union. It will no longer collect union dues from employee paychecks and pay union officials with taxpayer dollars.
"Most importantly, we want to bring closure to this issue at this time," Carson said. "It's time for the district to move on. It's time for us to move on for our teachers and for our kids and continue with the education reforms that we are pursuing."

snip

Brenda Smith is the president of the Douglas County Federation of Teachers and Classified Employees. She says the union will survive.
"We continue to represent our teachers who are in the classroom, the experts that are teaching our kids that directly impact kids every day," Smith said. "We'll continue to operate and function as we've always done in the past and continue to represent our employees."

snip

"Those reforms, there's going to be resistance," Carson said. "But, we want to move ahead and we're willing to work with people that want to work with us constructively on advancing those reforms."

3 times they took a vote to amend the platform to include
something about GOD ... and Israel and Jerusalem as its capital.
and I think they just forced it thru ...
what was that all about and why was it changed ...